Tempus Fugit
by hangmeuptodry
Summary: When had he lost Sakura? - Kakashi, Sakura
1. Erratum

**A/N: I don't own Naruto, but I do own Sakura's bitterness here.**

**Title: **Tempus Fugit

**Summary: **When had he lost Sakura? - Kakashi, Sakura

**Genre: **A little angsty

**Characters/Pairings:** Sakura and Kakashi, Teacher/Student Bond; NaruSaku Friendship

**Status: **Complete for now. I'll probably continue this sometime later on.

* * *

He had been folding laundry.

Sakura could tell by the slightly-faded-white plastic basket sitting beside his favorite hunter green armchair. The sturdy redwood table was moved a few inches towards aforementioned armchair. On it, lay a solo slightly-faded-white t-shirt.

Slap on hardwood floors, eggshell covered walls, two pictures with sets of faces she couldn't recognize, navy blue curtains covering a large window on the wall facing his sofa and you had a roughly described image of Kakashi Hatake's living room.

Sakura stood far away on the other side of the coffee table, unwilling to get any closer to him or his mostly-immaculate space.

She didn't belong.

She had never belonged with Kakashi.

Sakura tucked a rebelling strand of pink hair behind her ear. That was where it would stay until she fixed her ponytail.

She never paid attention to her appearance while at the hospital. It was ridiculous for anyone to expect she would. She usually had her arms elbow-deep in the sticky, red lifewater that belonged in someone else's veins or dealing with dangerous compounds for her next poison.

She wasn't eye candy for the shinobi who came into the hospital begrudgingly for their monthly check ups.

Today, however, was different.

Sakura tried hard not to fiddle with the hem of her perfectly-white doctor's coat.

Tsunade told her, "Go talk to that old, perverted sensei of yours. You're needed for a surgery on Friday and he'll have to find another medic nin for his upcoming mission."

She had wanted to correct her shishou. Tell her that he was no sensei of hers and if she could send one of the interns to do it. Thank her for taking her when no one else would and let her know that she had never wanted to go on the mission in the first place. Scream that the thought of being together with the three of them, and only the three of them, for company on a mission that would last 8 days made her want to runrunrun-

"Oh hello, Sakura. Please, sit."

Kakashi had stopped folding and was giving her that welcoming little eye-crease she had long ago decided was his way of smiling at her.

He had always smiled at her, but never gave her anything worthwhile.

"I won't be long. I have a lot of work waiting for me at-"

"The hospital. I know, Sakura," Kakashi tried to make the sigh that came out of him as indifferent as he was trying to be.

"Yes. Well, I only came to tell you that Tsunade-shishou needs me for a surgery on Friday. The daimyo specifically requested me. There's no way I can get out of it. I told Ino that she would be taking my place as the medic nin on your team."

Sasuke had returned, bringing back the once demolished Team 7, but Sakura had already moved past that part of her life.

Well, atleast she was trying to.

Everything was made more difficult with the missions that Tsunade assigned to the four of them. Sasuke had to work off his community service and Tsunade had decided to put his Sharingan to good use by putting him on some of the most physically grueling missions.

There was no weed picking for Sasuke.

Just a small shot at redemption by continuously putting his life at risk.

She was supposed to go on these missions as well, but with her preparations to take the hospital over, she almost never went.

The last time she had been apart of a "Team 7 Mission Spectacular" was a year ago.

And that was when she was "volunteering" to watch Sasuke during his house arrest.

"I see. This must be a big deal for you, hm? Sakura?"

Sakura shifted her weight onto her right leg as she answered. Her body was so stiff that standing was turning into such a nuisance.

Maybe she should sit down, like Kakashi said...

_Nonono, I won't give in._

"Not really. I've healed his relatives countless times before. There was a string of poisonings going around his family and I'm the only one with the antidote."

"Tsunade taught you well, Sakura."

She struggled to keep her fingers from clenching.

_Only because you didn't, Kakashi. You didn't teach me a damn thing except that I meant so little to you that I needed to search for a teacher, unless I wanted to drown from my deaddeaddeadweight-_

"I suppose she did."

"I'm proud of you, Sakura."

_It's too late for that. Praise isn't what I'm looking for from you anymore. If I were still 16 or 12 or apart of the team, than maybe I would have cherished those little words that towered over the expanses of my mind, little words that seemed so big to get from you._

"Thank you."

_Stop it. You keep saying my name with every response as if you suddenly remember who I am._

_I wish you would. Please look at me Kakashi-sensei. Look at me like you at them._

"Would you like some tea? I was just making some, Sakura."

"I should really get going."

_Ask me one more time and I will change my mind._

"Right. Someone might die if Doctor Haruno-sama wasn't at the hospital, correct?"

Kakashi said this with a lifting tone at the end, and a twinkle in his crinkled eye that showed his attempt at joking with her.

"Right. Have a nice day."

Sakura turned on the heel on her right foot and moved out of the apartment with sure, measure steps.

Kakashi observed her footing, and watched as she made it to the door after fivefourthreetwo-

_Move now, before you lose her for good._

"Sakura."

He watched as the muscles in her back locked after her shoulders slouched the smallest inch forward.

"Are you training tomorrow?"

"Yes."

Such a curt answer had him rethinking his last thought.

"Alone?"

"No. With Lee, Neji, and TenTen."

_Why, Sakura? Why them? Are we not good enough for you anymore? Now that you've perfected the art of breaking-and-mending, do we just not fit in the carefully assembled shards of the mirror that you have so-expertly put back together with your doctor hands after the return of Sasuke? Stop acting like such a fucking child, Sakura._

"Well how about stopping by Training Ground 3? Naruto has been yelling for you-"

A warm fondness flooded Sakura's eyes at the mention of Naruto.

_Imissyousosomuch-_

"And your expert healing hands. You know he hates the hospital.-"

_I would heal all your wounds, every day, any time if that was what you wanted me to do. Just come to me. Once. That's all I ask._

You chased after Sasuke for seven years. Why can't you be that focused on seeing me for even a minute?

"And he's always talking about how our team dinners aren't the same without you."

"You still have team dinners?"

_Nice to know-_

"Of course, Sakura."

_That even when I'm not around-_

"Every Friday?"

_You can still manage to call them "team dinners"._

"Mhm."

Conversation hit a lull. Sakura failed at the battle of her hands versus her will.

Clean, short fingernails dug into her palms.

Sakura could feel the white, hot, festering pain of rejection in anger coursing through her. It started from the soles of her feet and traveled upwards. Once it reached her stomach, she struggled not to throw up.

But as Kakashi spoke again,

"We'll be having this week's dinner tomorrow, since we have that mission on Friday."

The fury blasted off through her heart like fifty Chidori senbon were cutting through her Superior vena cava.

_Oh irony._

The needles stopped moving once they hit the medulla oblongata.

Yet, they had set Sakura in motion when they had stopped.

"Why are you telling me this? Do you want to rub it in my face that my team can carry on just fine without me? I don't need you to do that Kakashi. It was bad enough when you, Naruto, and everyone else went to get Sasuke without me multiple times last year. Now that he's here, Naruto has his best friend back, you have the only pupil you've ever given a shit about and I've regained my invisibility. I don't need you reminder."

Kakashi just sat there.  
To say he is shocked when she yells isn't true. Sakura has always had a bad temper.

But it's never been directed towards him before.

His calm indifference added salt to the pustules cultivating on the wounds of her pride.

"I'm telling you because you're team misses you."

Kakashi spoke in a hushed tone, almost like the day he told her the story of his teammate Rin at the memorial stone.  
Reverence, understanding, the utmost seriousness and grief rolled into one barely steady mode of speech.

_I wonder if you'd miss me that much if I died. I wonder if you'd miss me at all._

"Naruto doesn't make up a team. He's one person."

The quiet click of his door adjusting back to its frame put more pinpricks throughout his body than any slamming would have done.

He always thought he wasn't good at letting go of people.  
So when had he lost Sakura?

* * *

She didn't eat Ichiraku ramen anymore.  
That wasn't to say she didn't eat.

Sakura sat in the farthest booth the restaurant had from the entrance with three others.  
Tenten and Neji were talking about long swords in front of her, only stopping to take small bites of the herring soba, dumplings, and curry pilaf in the middle of the worn wood table they lounged at.

Lee sat to her right, talking about his strenuous morning training sessions with Gai-sensei.

Team Gai had the habit of putting all their ordered dishes in the middle of the table, and having some of everything.

The first time she had eaten with Team Gai was after her first training session with them.

Lee and Neji had accepted her plea to help with her taijutsu and agility, while Tenten showed her how to competently use a katana.

_Because she always had to beg for anyone to train her. Begbegbeg, Sakura. It's one thing you're good at._

Afterwards, they had dragged their bodies, beaten and a little bloody, to the same place they were in now for a late lunch.

Lee had told her that "Gai-sensei says it promotes teamwork while we all share each other's youth and tastes!"

Neji and Tenten had both admitted they thought it was stupid, until it became common practice for them.

Sakura couldn't help but think how no one shared ramen when Team 7 took their seats at Ichiraku.

She didn't hesitate in sliding her umeboshi in between the curry and herring.

Outside, Kakashi passed by, feeling the warmth of her chakra.

_Warm, but cooling at the same time._

__Then he set out to fix the wounds he helped make.

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_"Hokage-sama."_

_"Oh, Kakashi. Has Sakura spoken to you?"_

_"Yes, she has. And Ino will be the medic for this mission. Again."_

_"...Sakura's a busy girl, Kakashi. People need her."_

_"I understand."_

_"..."_

_"When is her next training session with you?"_

_"...Two weeks. Outskirts of Konoha's forest."_

_"I'll be there."_

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_It's about time, Kakashi._

* * *

Tell me what you think!

xx mm.


	2. Lux Sit

Sequel is up.

Check out "Lux Sit" and thank you for reading!

xx mm.


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